- Protest Song in East and West Germany Since the 1960s
This is a somewhat unusual collection as over half the essays (five of nine, plus the introduction) are written by the editor; the other four chapters are written by three guest authors, so to speak. The immediate difficulty of the volume is the lack of an explicit definition of the title genre of "protest song," as well as the term "political song," which is actually used more frequently throughout the book. For as used by these authors, these terms do not include the satirical song of the political cabaret and the topical popular song, or political rock music. The study focuses rather on Liedermacher or singer-songwriters in both German states, with central figures such as Franz Josef Degenhardt, Hannes Wader, Wolf Biermann, Konstantin Wecker, and the duo Wenzel and Mensching. In the two opening chapters, Robb—himself a singer-songwriter in [End Page 445] Belfast, who studied and performed in East Germany in the 1980s—argues that these singers grow out of the tradition of political lyrics of the 1848 revolution as well as the revolutionary Kampflied of Erich Mühsam, Bertolt Brecht, and Hanns Eisler. A third chapter, also by Robb, examines strategies of role play in songwriters' lyrics, ranging from dramatic monologues to narratives of historical figures of literary tradition such as Villon and Heine, as well as ironic clown play. Through this theme of narrative identities, this chapter also gives a good overview of the development of the song art in the two German states.
In a more anecdotal style, the next two chapters by Eckard Holler give lively insider portrayals of the Burg Waldeck folk music festivals of the 1960s, tracing the personalities, artistic-political concepts and power struggles of the singing scene, and the West German Liedermacher culture of the 1970s and 1980s, following the decline and transformation of folk music culture. Two case studies follow: Annette Blühdorn describes the idiosyncratic poetics of Konstantin Wecker, arguing that despite his individualism, his music is at heart deeply political, and Peter Thompson recounts the career and literary strategies of Wolf Biermann before and after his expulsion from East Germany in 1976. Breaking down traditional clichés of GDR singers as either conformists or resistors, Robb then gives a more dialectical account of their complex and double-edged relationship to East German state institutions and censors. The closing chapter, on the "demise" of the political song and the rise of techno as a new model of political music after German unification, draws a rather tenuous connection between techno music and the Love Parade on the one hand, and to the politics of the Liedermacher movement on the other, as Robb attempts to identify an influence of Eisler's aesthetics of resistance on the pop avant-garde. Missing from this study of the "protest song" is a solid chapter on political rock music, from the Rock gegen rechts movement to political mass concerts such as the 1992 Arsch huh demonstration against racism in Cologne, as well as the political protest of Neue deutsche Welle musicians and the punk scene.
The volume is therefore a mix between a monograph and a collection; though it offers a chronological overview, it is not wholly cohesive and has some overlapping and even outright repetition. The emphasis lies on the lyrics and the political programs of the singers, more so than musical and performative aspects. Robb's study succeeds admirably in anchoring the Liedermacher and folk music scenes in the German traditions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, showing this to be a unique and culturally rooted phenomenon, although his emphasis on the "Germanness" of the song art means that international influences such as Anglo-American bards or French chanson singers are downplayed. This is also a conspicuously male history; except for passing mention of Fasia and Bettina Wegner, women are virtually invisible here.
Thanks to its spirit of youthful rebellion and its knack for bridging the gap between the popular and the artistic...